Open Grave (2013) Review

Synopsis: A man wakes up in the wilderness, in a pit full of dead bodies, with no memory and must determine if the murderer is one of the strangers who rescued him, or if he himself is the killer.

My Quick Review: I had forgotten about Gonzalo Lopez Gallego, the director of Open Grave, despite him being the man behind El Rey de La Montana, a very exciting thriller with some awesome POV shooting scenes. The problem is that since that movie he also directed Appollo 18, one of the worst found footage of recent memories (according to critics, so maybe I should go and watch it to make my own opinion soon).

The early scenes in Open Grave are gorgeously shot and demonstrate all the technical ability of Lopez-Gallego. What could have been another variation of the “strangers waking up in a locked place” genre ends up quite elevated by the direction and a story that shows some originality.

To say more about the story would spoil the fun and I’d suggest to stay clear of any trailer or promo materials if you wanna enjoy Open Grave to its fullest.

There are only 2 main issues with the movie: the pacing is a little bit off at time, there are some lackluster scenes when I did have a look at my watch. And the script, while entertaining, keeps the cards too close to the chest and prevents us, the viewers, to be totally concerned or involved with the characters (who are not being helped by poor dialogues). This is a case of keeping the viewers too much in the dark.

Open Grave has been out in Europe for a few months now and will be stateside in early January. It’s the perfect little thriller to start 2014 in style.